Preben Gudmandsen, a Danish engineer, was educated at the Technical University of Denmark (TUD) where he received his M.Sc. in electrical engineering in 1950 with a thesis on theoretical investigation of waveguide structures. He worked as a research engineer at the Microwave Laboratory of the Academy of Technical Sciences, Denmark (1950-1957). From 1957 to 1960 he worked as a research scientist and later Section Head at SHAPE Air Defence Technical Centre, The Hague, Netherlands (Tropospheric Scatter Communication experiments in Norway, and studies of ionospheric propagation). From 1960 to 1961 he was employed as a development engineer at Titan A/S, Copenhagen (Large-current rectifier plants). From 1961 to 1994 he was associated with the Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby (Electromagnetics Institute), first as Assistant and later (1964) as Associate Professor, and from 1972 as Professor of Microwave Techniques. He was Head of the Remote Sensing Unit of the Electromagnetics Institute until he retired from the university in November 1994 and is now employed by RS-Consult Aps, founded with two colleagues in 1985. In this capacity he continues his research related to the Greenland area, the ice sheet and the Greenland waters using remote sensing data. In 1967 Gudmandsen initiated remote sensing activities in Denmark by carrying out airborne radio echo sounding of the Greenland Ice Sheet, a ten-year project of equipment design, profiling from aircraft and analysis of data for compilation of a map of the bed under the ice sheet. This work was initially carried out in the framework of the Expédition Glaciologique Internationale au Groenland (EGIG). Satellite remote sensing was initiated in 1972 through work with passive microwave remote sensing in connection with the NASA Nimbus-7 programme. He initiated and led the East Greenland Current Project (development of methods in geophysics), 1984-86, and the Greenland Sea Project (1987-95). He is Principal Investigator of an ERS-1 project related to research in the Greenland Sea. In addition to his university duties, he has contributed to a number of contracts with ESA and participated in various ESA study groups since 1972, several of them being forerunners for ERS-1. Honorary member/President of several national and international space and remote sensing associations (e.g EARSeL), he was awarded several medals and prizes for his work in microwave remote sensing. Danish delegate to ESA (1972-94) in various boards and working groups, including Council (1987-1994).